[Closed] It's been a while since we've had a WWSTWD thread.

Just get the window in on her house insurance and let them settle or chase the damage.

Is paddy a home owner or a tenant of any type?

Fix the window on your insurance. Even if paddy is found guilty, he'll have to pay it back at about 11p a week.
Life's too short.

Had a similar thing a fair few years back, bloke and 'girlfriend' walking past the house having an argument, bloke ended up kicking the car door in some sort of rage.

Arrested and charged etc, luckily the opposite neighbor was a detective, so booked him on the spot, he had no money though so he'll probably still be paying 30p a week out of his benefits to this day towards the damage to my ex stepmothers car!

What sort of window? If it is a double glazed unit then just buy the unit and fit it yourself. They are usually very easy to fit and the units are very cheap. If it is older and held in with putty then that is a bigger job. In the spirit of WWSTWD I'd still DIY that but it is not a job for everyone. I doubt you'll get any real money back so keep it cheap.

Presumably this individual has an ASBO or two? Make the council pay if they've just ignored him? All the same it sounds terrifying for your mum.

Unfortunately for Paddy another neighbour knows exactly who it is, but that’s another story.

I’ll be deeply, deeply disappointed if the other guy isn’t called Benny. He needs to be massive.

Thanks all.

Is paddy a home owner or a tenant of any type?

Well, therein lies a tale. I told you it was a long story.

They rent. Paddy's mum moved in a few years ago along with her carer, "Alan." One day my mum caught Alan leaving, telling her "Paddy's moving in. And if Paddy's moving in, I'm moving out." This is an anecdote that with no exaggeration she must have told me a hundred times.

She relayed this story to the police yesterday. The two coppers looked at each other and simultaneously went "illegal tenant." They've promised her "we'll get him out, and we'll get her out as well." Cos the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.

What sort of window? If it is a double glazed unit

It's a double-glazed, leaded unit above the front door.

Presumably this individual has an ASBO or two? Make the council pay

I don't know. I think he's got an ABH / GBH conviction for battering his brother?

I've been telling her for years to keep a record so that I can stick it under the council's nose but I might as well be talking to the cat.

Good luck getting money off a council.

Might be a chance of getting some off a perp if he gets done for breaking the window (you've not said what the charge might be).

Get it fixed and move on.

Neighbours rent off the Council?
In that case I’d contact the Council as most Local Authority leases include a ‘sociability’ clause.
Worth writing down other instances of Paddy’s behaviour that you recall.

Report to landlord

Get insurance involved

Step back n get on with your life.

Or option 2 same as option one but leave for 6 months and kick the living shut out of him

Rearrange any combination of the following words.

Wee
Sausages
Dog
Child’s face
Bombers
Shoes
Hammer
In to
His
Frozen
Lawn
Baby robins

Precision strike.

(you’ve not said what the charge might be).

Apologies, I thought I had. Criminal Damage.

Neighbours rent off the Council?

Private rental. the owner is a little Asian woman my mum has seen precisely once, back when she bought it. I can't see her forcibly ejecting them, the last time he was taken away it took five strapping coppers to get him in the van.

Worth writing down other instances of Paddy’s behaviour that you recall.

I've been telling her this for years. In hindsight I should've started documenting it myself every time she complained to me.

Report to landlord

Great idea. Have you got her number?

The police suggested this, my mum told them she'd no way of knowing how to do so, they said "oh, we do" so that's going to happen now also, seemingly.

This?

Wee Frozen Baby robins In to Lawn!

One of my neighbours is dealing with something similar - again, a very long story, but he's ended up with the Aussie equivalent of an anti-harassment order against a mutual neighbor of ours.

He swears that getting CCTV fitted was the best thing he ever did - any incidents can now be immediately acted on by the police - who seem to regard the footage as the gold standard of evidence required to charge her (she's got about 3 or 4 charges pending). Just from his horrific experiences, I think I would install some if my neighbor was even slightly dodgy.

I think the arlo units are fairly set-and-forget, which is what you would want in this application I guess.

Yes, if he's found guilty of criminal damage there will be a compensation award (you'll need to have provided the replacement cost to the police before then). The court/compliance office will send you forms to complete to get your bank details. If they're unemployed though it could take a while to get the money back as they can come to an arrangement with the court to pay in instalments. I guess this all only applies if you pay to fix the damage out of your own pocket, not sure what happens if you go through insurance...

Unimog through his front window.

3quid land register search gives you the landowner. I'm sure from there some google fu will find her.

If they’re unemployed though it could take a while to get the money back as they can come to an arrangement with the court to pay in instalments.

Yeah, that happened to me years ago. Had my car vandalised, the lad in question was ordered to pay me back at £10 every two weeks. That went a long way towards getting it fixed.

Worked out OK in the end, after a couple of months he stopped paying at all. I complained and I can't remember the exact circumstances now but ultimately I got a cheque for the full amount.

I guess this all only applies if you pay to fix the damage out of your own pocket, not sure what happens if you go through insurance…

... which is exactly why I was asking the question in the first place.

It's moot now anyway. She's had a quote for the window, £65. The excess on her insurance is £100 so there's absolutely no point in troubling them with it.

Then it’d normally be an insurance job I suppose, but if the CPS(?) are going to prosecute the bloke then she’s presumably going to be awarded compensation if / when they’re successful. So how’s that all work, what order does she do things in?

Fix the window (either directly, or via insurance). Tell the PC dealing with your case what the costs were, how much you got from the insurance (you won't get excess) and if your premium goes up / any no claims is lost what your total cost is. Ask them to pass to CPS and suggest compensation may be appropriate. [In the very unlikely event you are compensated more than you are out of pocket you should probably be offering to repay the insurer].

The court will then have the facts and can consider if a compensation order is appropriate. They may decide not to (e.g. if the person was out of prison on license or a suspended sentence they may go straight to jail and compensation is very unlikely then). Beware:
1. The offender will only have to pay compensation if convicted of THIS offence. Its not uncommon for the CPS to screw up and drop a case; to negotiate a plea on a variety of cases and drop this one; to lose a case completely. Your case is really just a line in a very long list.
2. If the court imposes a compensation order then usually the offender will be given time to pay. The sort of person who lobs vodka bottles at windows will often not be in employment and be permitted £5/wk. IIRC you don't get the compensation until it is all received. If they don't pay they will likely be brought back to court (in non covid times) - the sanctions then may mean you still don't get paid (e.g. if they are sent to jail, or given unpaid work).

That is the situation north of the border (with COPFS rather than CPS) but I assume it is similar down south. Even if its "only" £65 and that sounds like a load of faff for not much benefit, I'd suggest its worth doing anyway: the magistrate(s) dealing with the case have a limited range of options available; they may well want to impose a compensation order (its a fairly logical thing in this sort of case as part of the overall sentence); if they don't have a value for the damage then they have two choices - adjourn for a value at huge cost to the system during a time with major backlogs, or leave compensation out of the sentence. As compensation is an option in a addition to other sentences - the magistrates may find it a useful tool to get the overall mix right, especially where sentencing guidelines etc don't deliver on their own. Indeed the CPS may even find it provides a suitable pre-court option.

The two coppers looked at each other and simultaneously went “illegal tenant.” They’ve promised her “we’ll get him out, and we’ll get her out as well.”

I think that is very unlikely. The police won’t want to be involved in a civil matter

Thanks both.

Dunno about the police. One of they things one of them said in passing was something like "we'll put the damage down at £1,000." To my mind this is presumably a case of them having to put something in the write-up and the copper isn't a glazier qualified to make any sort of estimate. But it's a random thing to say and she's been obsessing about it, "what's this thousand pounds, what's that all about, where has he got that from?" I tell her it's an irrelevance and to forget about it and she's like "I know, so why say it then?"

Flashy is that gif of a drone strike meant to be funny?